Parchers Resort Bishop

... to jackson to pick up his sweetheart and drive her to Missouri, Elisa and Andy went to South Lake tahoe, Elisa has work there and Andy is now headed for the Shasta, as for Heather and i, we are just gouing to drive around, see what the road brings us!

After 3 weeks with the kids we are heading back home. Our 1st stop was Yosemite National Park. We only had about 5 hrs to take it in but what we saw was breathtaking. The granite rocks are mostly flat and straight up. We were able to see Glacier Point, Bridal Veil, El Capitan and Tunnel View. As we were leaving the Park via the Tioga Pass we got a great view at Olmstead Point of clouds resting in the Miountains.
Next stop....Las Vegas,baby.

... This trip has been a dream in the back of my head since 2002 as I made my way through the High Sierra on the PCT. When Misty suggested this hike as part of our year long trip, she didn't have to say it twice. Wandering through these peaks, pushing my body athletically and enjoying the capabilities of my human body and mind were just the beginning of what I love about hiking. and more specifically hiking in one of the ...

... br>
Next we drove to the largest sequoia. We stood on bricks set out as what the stump of the tree would look like and it was giant/humungous/massive/making us look like dwarves etc. There were other sequoias on the Congress Trail with names like The President, The Senate and The House.
Sequoia NP was freezing and we had to rug up a lot but I enjoyed it.



The next day we went to ...

Well, our car barely made it to Bishop, CA, but after several hot-weather stalls, we coasted into the cow-poke town just in time for Mule Days. Despite the year-round tourism offered by Bishop (fishing, climbing, backpacking, skiing), Mule Days is the weekend when the city is the most packed. Tens of thousands of people come from ...

... pictures in books and, most recently, in the Patagonia catalog but it was really neat to see them blown up, in person. Very cool. After a short stop at the gear shop, we headed out to Owen's River Gorge to see if we could find some sun to climb in. The drive out there is amazing. The Sierra rise up to the west, the White mountains to the east. There was a light dusking of snow, the air was crisp and the skies were blue ...

Today was the trek up to Bishop to see my grandmother. This part of our vacation is why the entire trip is occurring. My grandmother turns 96 this summer and we haven't seen her for 3 years. We knew that we needed to make a point to head out here and visit her. Now, the drive between southern California and Bishop is a bit barren, with much of it through high desert. We ...

... in the morning sunshine on some benches outside the store. There were so many squirrels around, they cheeky little things, trying to steal a crumb here and there. You're not meant to feed them but lots of people do. We drove to the visitor centre, but driving around the park was a nightmare and there was nowhere really to park. They try and encourage you to take the shuttle and I think we decided early on that this was probably a good idea seeing it was ...

... in a very quiet voice. You now want to look and run at the same time so you push the missus in front of you and go see.... And there he is, luckily teenage and not a fully grown black bear, but a fine fellow nevertheless. For emphasis the bear picks up a log and rips it in two before calmly snuffling up the insects inside - right in front of you. Got your tickets yet?

... 491 feet was actually very easy for us after all the miles we'd put in. We were so acclimatized that even on the summit we felt absolutely no different than any other elevation we'd been. On our way down we passed a guy that looked like he was about ready to keel over and die, but he was only 10 minutes from the top, so we said good luck and continued down to camp. Later that night the rescue helicopter landed about 200 feet from our camp at Crabtree Meadows. It was stopping ...